New tank - any advise appreciated... cycling question...

[Ariuh]

Hello all,
Completely new to aquarium keeping so please bear with me, I have a few questions if you could help me, I would be very grateful. So I have a 75 litre fish tank given to us with it's gravel. It has been used, the tank was emptied and cleaned and the gravel was dry when we got them. We have a submersible filter with spray bar, a heater and air pumps insitu. We used quick start, water conditioner and salt to fill the tank. This was on the 28/4. I have seeded the tank with fish food everyday since.


These are the readings we are getting:

29/4 Chlorine: 0, PH: 8.4, KH: 8, GH: 8, No2:1, No3 25, Sal: 1.017
We added more marine salt to bring the salinity up.
30/4 Chlorine: 0, PH: 8, KH: 7.2, GH: 8, No2: 0, No3: 10 Ammonia: 0, Sal: 1.022
1/5: Chlorine: 0. PH 7.8, KH: 6, GH:8, No2: 1, No3: 10, Ammonia:0.5, Sal: 1.022
2/5: Chlorine:0, PH 7.8, KH: 10, GH: 8, No2:1, No3: 10 Ammonia: 0, Sal: 1.022
3/5: Chlorine:0, PH 8, KH 10, GH 8, No2: 1, No3: 10 Ammonia; 0 Sal: 1.023


Could anyone tell me whats going on? I am familiar with the nitrogen cycle, but the numbers seem very stagnant, apart from the ammonia spike on the 1/5 to 0.5 we havent seen much change. and Carbonate hardness seems to be rising. What is the reason for this? Could the used gravel be helping the bacteria growth? or is it too early to see any changes? The tank itself has a murky cloudiness about it. I havent changed the water since the day i set up the tank.

Any advise appreciated.
Kind regards
Kirsten

 

[betta fish]

Hi, are you setting this up to be a marine tank or freshwater?

 

[Ariuh]

I am setting this up to be a marine tank, thanks!

 

[betta fish]

Hi, marine tanks are quite complex to keep as a first tank I would highly recommend you go the freshwater route for now, as you have all the necessary equipment for one. 75L is small, especially for a marine tank, you would need to change the gravel for live sand and get live rock and wave makers, marine tanks do not need internal filters or airstones, the live rock and sand are your filters and the wave makers replicate the oceans waves.
Not to mention you will need a source of RO water to mix the salt into so an RO machine under your sink which coverts tap water or a shop that sells RO water ( Reverse Osmosis ) ordinary tap water is not good to use.
There is also the added expense of marine, everything marine related is expensive, much more so than freshwater, I kept a marine tank for two years and loved it but the expense and up keep eventually got to me.